The darkness wrapping around the Odyssey was suffocating, as if the anomaly itself had swallowed them whole. Only the dim glow of emergency lights illuminated the tense faces of the crew. Kael Thorne tightened his grip on the edge of the console, his sharp gaze scanning the failing systems.
"Lyra, status report," he commanded, his voice steady despite the chaos.
Lyra Soren's fingers danced across the controls, her jaw clenched. "We've lost main power, but life support is holding. The anomaly… it's destabilizing our core. Whatever's out there, it's not playing by our rules."
"I could've told you that!" Rift's voice chimed in from the console, its usual humor tinged with unease. "Fun fact: we're currently defying about five different laws of physics. Isn't that exciting?
Kael shot a glare at the AI interface. "Rift, focus. What's our exit strategy?"
"Well, if by 'exit' you mean 'miraculous escape from certain doom,' then. working on it," Rift replied. "But you might want to check out the readings on Deck 3. Something-or someone-is pinging our internal sensors."
"Impossible," Lyra muttered, pulling up the data. "We're the only ones aboard."
"Apparently not," Rift quipped. "You've got company.
Kael exchanged a grim look with Lyra. "Raylan, suit up," he said, activating his commlink. "Meet me on Deck 3. Kyra, keep us steady. Lyra, you're with me."
The ship groaned under the anomaly's pressure as Kael and Lyra made their way to the lower deck. The silence was broken only by the faint hum of failing systems and the occasional spark of damaged circuits.
By the time they reached Deck 3, Raylan Korr was there, gun drawn, unflinching. "What are we looking for, Captain?"
"An intruder," Kael said, his eyes scanning the corridor before them. "Keep your guard up."
The three moved cautiously, their footsteps loud in the stillness. The air felt heavier, and Kael couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.
Then, without warning, the limpid, metronomic tapping echoed from beyond the crook in the corridor. Raylan raised his gun; eyes slewed sidewise in a narrow glance.
"Identify yourself!" he abruptly roared, voice shattering the dense stillness.
The tapping stopped. In maybe a few seconds more, a dark silhouette, vaguely humanlike, liquescent with soft flow of contours, outlined itself out of low-light gloom.
"What in the star.," Lyra breathed, her hand finding her sidearm almost instinctively.
The figure cocked its head, studying them. In a voice of a thousand whispers overlapping, it finally spoke:
"You seek answers in the void, but the void seeks to consume you."
Kael stepped forward, heart pounding. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The form shifted, its features coalescing for a moment into something approximating a face-alien, yet hauntingly familiar. "I am the Echo," it said. "A fragment of what was lost. You stand at the threshold of a truth your kind was never meant to uncover."
Before Kael could utter a word in response, the Echo exploded in a burst of light, and the ship bucked violently.
"Captain!" Rift's voice blared over the comms. "The anomaly's energy just spiked. Whatever that thing was, it left us a nasty parting gift."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Raylan, Lyra, get back to the bridge. Rift, prep for emergency stabilization. We're not going down without a fight."
As the crew scrambled to regain control of the Odyssey, Kael couldn't shake the Echo's words from his mind.
The void kept secrets-
secrets that might save the galaxy or be its doom.